{"id":844,"date":"2010-02-22T19:54:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T02:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harvardnsj.com\/?p=844"},"modified":"2010-02-22T19:54:44","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T02:54:44","slug":"nsj-analysis-increasing-use-of-unmanned-drones-raises-data-security-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/2010\/02\/nsj-analysis-increasing-use-of-unmanned-drones-raises-data-security-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"NSJ Analysis: Increasing Use of Unmanned Drones Raises Data Security Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the continuing war in Afghanistan, the United States has made extensive use of unmanned Predator drones to carry out reconnaissance as well as armed strikes.\u00a0 On Monday The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that a U.S. drone killed three militants in North Waziristan, and on Friday CNN reported<\/a> that a Haqqani network commander was killed in a drone strike.\u00a0 The use of unmanned aircraft is likely to continue expanding: The Washington Post<\/em> reports<\/a> that the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command continues to search for a dedicated unmanned intelligence-gathering airship.\u00a0 Although drones can ensure mission capability while avoiding casualties, they are not perfect.<\/p>\n

Drones raise unique security issues as their data streams, and possibly control streams, must be secured.\u00a0 Unlike a manned airplane controlled from a cockpit and generally involving a closed system of control, a drone is often remote-controlled through a two-way data stream carried over sometimes thousands of miles.\u00a0 Such data streams can be vulnerable to hacking, like any computer network.\u00a0 According to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, in December 2009, militants in Iraq were able to hack a drone\u2019s video feed using low cost off-the-shelf software.\u00a0 While there was no evidence that the militants were able to take control of the drone, they were able to download and see the drone’s video feed, perhaps allowing them to evade U.S. operations.<\/p>\n

The stark difference between resource requirements between the militant hackers and the U.S. military is telling.\u00a0 While Reaper drones like the one hacked can cost over $10 million, the militants used a computer program that cost around $25.\u00a0 The low cost of the program allows militants to proliferate the software and thereby increase the danger that drones can be hacked and their video feeds watched by enemy forces.<\/p>\n

The ability of militants in Iraq to hack drone video feeds should be cause for concern, especially as far more advanced military forces such as Russia and China have extensive cyber-warfare capabilities.\u00a0 While Iraqi militants relied on cheap software to capture a video feed, other states’ capabilities could conceivably allow a foreign force to hijack a drone, either to alter the mission or crash the drone before the mission can be completed.\u00a0 Increased reliance on drone warfare will also increase the opportunities for enemy cyber-warfare units to hack or hijack the unmanned vehicles.<\/p>\n

U.S. drone vulnerability stems from the fact that once a drone is far from its base, satellite uplinks are necessary to link the drone to the base.\u00a0 Such uplinks are vulnerable to hacking, unless the data stream is encrypted.\u00a0 But the drones\u2019 data stream is unencrypted, and unless significant expenditures are made to add encryption to the proprietary satellite technology, the vulnerability will remain.\u00a0 The unencrypted data stream vulnerability carries over to other U.S. satellite traffic, as a 2005 CIA report<\/a> describes.\u00a0 While the control data stream of drones is encrypted, the ability of enemies to access U.S. drone intelligence seriously undermines the ability of the United States to use that intelligence for mission purposes.<\/p>\n

U.S. drone vulnerabilities have been known to the U.S. military since at least the 1999 Yugoslav war.\u00a0 Whether it was bureaucratic indifference or inertia, the problem was not addressed.\u00a0 Most worrying, U.S. commanders may have seriously underestimated the ingenuity and technical proficiency of militants.\u00a0 If this is so, it must be hoped that the same commanders will not continue to underestimate the threat to drone data-gathering and control posed by a lack of data stream security.\u00a0 Only by addressing this security hole can the ever-growing drone force be considered a fully functional weapon of war, useful in all possible conflicts and with a varied mission profile.<\/p>\n

For more, see the article from Wired.com<\/a> and the CBS news expose.<\/a><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Defense Tech<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of the continuing war in Afghanistan, the United States has made extensive use of unmanned Predator drones to carry out reconnaissance as well as armed strikes.\u00a0 On Monday The New York Times reported that a U.S. drone killed three militants in North Waziristan, and on Friday CNN reported that a Haqqani network commander was killed in a drone strike.\u00a0 The use of unmanned aircraft is likely to continue expanding: The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command continues to search for a dedicated unmanned intelligence-gathering airship.\u00a0 Although drones can ensure mission capability while 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